The Social Media Minute (15-July-2009)

Social media moves so fast, it's hard to keep up. Here are the week's top stories in scan-friendly format:

Facebook Worth More than CBS

Google to Launch an Operating System

Was Bruno Revenue Affected By Twitter Comments?

Want a Social Media Manager Job? Best Buy Has Low Expectations

Facebook Worth More than CBS

A recent Mashable article points to a point that should not be taken lightly. With a recent influx of cash, Facebook is now worth more than CBS, the U.S. television network. That is, with their US$ 200 million infusion of capital, Facebook is now valued at around US$ 10 billion.

With this new perspective, it should be apparent that Facebook is becoming a force to reckon with. The social networking site is also worth more than Discovery Communications, the department store Macy's and even popular online property SalesForce.com.

A final note, with Facebook Connect coming on board and its new ad platform starting to gain steam, Facebook is looking to be a major player on the online ecosystem. Could they be the next Google? Only time will tell.

Google to Launch Operating System

There has been a long-held rumor around the social web that Google was working on their own operating system. There has never been any concrete evidence of this effort, until last week when the search engine went public with their plans for the Google Chrome OS.

Chrome OS will be a fully open source operating system that will be built off the Linux platform, providing a jumping off point for cloud-based software and systems. Like Google's Chrome browser, the OS will likely be lightweight and nimble. This move is squarely aimed at Microsoft and will change the game of Netbook and portable computing platforms.

Google Chrome OS is said to be launched in the second half of 2010. At this point, specifics aren't known about the project. Regardless, the blogosphere went nuts about the prospect of a new OS choice for netbooks.

Was Bruno Affected By Twitter Comments?

Bruno, Sasha Baren Cohen's latest movie, opened this weekend and generated US$ 31 million in ticket sales. However, the movie experienced a 40% drop in ticket sales from Friday to Saturday, and was even worse off on Friday. Could this have been caused by social media?

This might be true as many Twitter users reported on the site that the movie was "repulsive and terrible." That is, early movie watchers on Friday tweeted that the movie wasn't worth watching, and some think this influenced ticket sales as the weekend dragged on.

In fact, movie executives behind Bruno were so excited about Friday's ticket sales that they were counting on high revenues for the entire weekend. These officials got a shock, as the numbers trickled in from the weekend.

Whether Twitter alone drove down Bruno's numbers is unknown, but the fact remains that people are talking about movies, good or bad, and with amplifiers such as Twitter, word travels much faster now.

Want a Social Media Manager Job? Best Buy Has Low Expectations

Recently Best Buy, the U.S. technology retailer, posted a job ad looking for a candidate with mobile, social and video marketing skills.

What qualifications would you need to fill such a position? How about just 1 year of blogging experience and only 250 Twitter followers?

The requirements also demand 2 years of marketing experience at a director level and 4 years of resource leadership, but the lackluster social media experience is so glaring here. Just about anyone reading this post is probably already qualified for this "high-level" position.

What qualifications do you think should be needed to lead such a position? At this point, Social Media experts might be as plentiful as web designers were in the 90's.

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